The European far-right is growing. And not for the reasons you think

The far-right in Europe is winning support by combining anti-immigration rhetoric with a populist economic agenda.

A candidate for the French far-right National Front (FN) party has won a by-election in the south-east of the country.

A poll commissioned by French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur asking French voters how they will cast their ballot in next year’s European parliamentary elections also has the FN on top with 24 per cent of the votes.

“For the first time in a poll on voting intentions in an election of a national character, the FN is clearly ahead,” an Ifop pollster said.

The rise of the French NF mirrors the growth in support for nationalists across Europe, with the far-right in Austria, Bulgaria, Poland and Austria also registering high in the polls on current projections. Dutch anti-Muslim populist Geert Wilders is polling well and Greek Neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn is now the third biggest party in Greek politics.

The rise of the far-right in Europe, and in France in particular, is no reason for liberals this side of the Channel to feel smug, however. The past year has seen the growth of our own anti-immigration and anti-EU party in the form of UKIP, and a 2011 poll found that half of British people would support a party of the far-right if it eschewed violence.

Ironically, France’s FN has grown in popularity as the party has combined anti-immigrant sentiment with the sort of anti-globalisation, anti-market rhetoric that is usually the preserve of the left. This explains why the French Socialist Party is losing just as many voters to Len Pen as the centre-right UMP.

It also reflects a wider phenomenon. Across Europe, as the political mainstream has converged on an increasingly narrow strip of political territory popularly known as the ‘centre ground’, movements of the far-right have co-opted some of the old economic causes of the left and fused them with more traditional far-right grievances. As Cecile Alduy puts it in the Atlantic, “whereas [former FN leader] Jean-Marie was anti-abortion, socially conservative, and a staunch advocate of small government, Marine is pro-choice, gay-friendly, and economically interventionist”.

The combination of anti-market rhetoric and extreme right-wing ideology in part explains the surge in support for leaders such as Le Pen. It is not simply that people become more hostile to outsiders during crisis (although they do), it is that people also look more to the government for solutions, which the far-right is professing to offer in the form of greater intervention in the economy.

The fact that the extreme-right is able to offer more radical sounding economic proposals is helped by the fact that in most instances it remains on the political margins.

This combination of economic populism, anti-establishment rhetoric and xenophobia is not new – 20th century fascism was well known for it – but it has become an increasingly effective tool of the far-right as mainstream parties of the left have come to be seen as just as much a part of the establishment as their conservative counterparts.

In Britain, the British National Party (BNP) may be experiencing a slump, but politically its platform resembles the mainland European extreme right in its combination of racism and economic populism. The party opposes British membership of the EU, is “committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration,” yet runs candidates on a platform of an interventionist economic policy which supports import tariffs.

This is why the far-right in its current form is so dangerous: it is much harder to oppose a party which papers over its racism and xenophobia with populist dressing of the left and centre.

The BNP has failed to make significant gains in Britain, but there is very little reason to think a party which combined hostility to foreigners (usually Muslims) with populist economic intervention could not make electoral progress. According to a number of polls, the public supports the nationalisation of things like the trains and the utilities, but there is also widespread hostility toward immigration and the EU.

This presents a dilemma for a generation of professional politicians trained to triangulate and seek out the centre ground between right and left. Rather than pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment, to ward off the threat from the far-right the British and European left will at some point have to rediscover its own anti-establishment credentials and persuade sceptical electorates that they can make the market work again.

If it cannot do that, the far-right may make further dangerous gains, and not only in France.

26 Responses to “The European far-right is growing. And not for the reasons you think”

maxime1793

robertcp

I agree, although it does seem that the Labour Party is gradually returning to something that resembles social democracy. I also think that it is positive that the non-racist UKIP has replaced the BNP as the right-wing protest party. There is, however, no room for complacency with Rachel Reeves showing that some Labour politicians are still obsessed with the “centre ground”.

James Lovelace

The Left is dead. I say that as someone who was a socialist for 30 years, brought up by communist parents. The Left has shown it has no principles, has hog-tied itself to islamic fascism for the last 30 years. The Left bang on about slave-trading by white people which ended 150 years ago, but are silent about non-stop slave-trading by muslims to this day. Even a blind person can see the hypocrisy that runs right through the Left.

What is happening in France, is happening in Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Norway. Given the choice between lower wages and a life as the slaves of muslim fanatics, people are already digging the grave for socialism.

James Lovelace

The Left is dead. I say that as someone who was a socialist for 30 years, brought up by communist parents. The Left has shown it has no principles, has hog-tied itself to islamic fascism for the last 30 years. The Left bang on about slave-trading by white people which ended 150 years ago, but are silent about non-stop slave-trading by muslims to this day. Even a blind person can see the hypocrisy that runs right through the Left.

What is happening in France, is happening in Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Norway. Given the choice between lower wages and a life as the slaves of muslim fanatics, people are already digging the grave for socialism.

James Lovelace

The Left is dead. I say that as someone who was a socialist for 30 years, brought up by communist parents. The Left has shown it has no principles, has hog-tied itself to islamic fascism for the last 30 years. The Left bang on about slave-trading by white people which ended 150 years ago, but are silent about non-stop slave-trading by muslims to this day. Even a blind person can see the hypocrisy that runs right through the Left.

What is happening in France, is happening in Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Norway. Given the choice between lower wages and a life as the slaves of muslim fanatics, people are already digging the grave for socialism.

@sonofsantiago

IMO the concept of right and left is meaningless. At one point in time the “left” opposed “globalisation” which had at its core, free movement of labour and capital. Now the “left” supports the EU and free movement of labour, or immigration, and so is pro globalisation. Immigration is the outsourcing of the British working class, and the class knows this. So they will support those who oppose it. That’s why today’s Skynews poll shows 67% of Brits oppose more immigration.
Britain has no way of combatting this whilst in the EU because we do not control our borders or economy. The unelected EU Commission does. Again, the class knows this. Our trade unions, with the honourable exception of a few like RMT, go along with this.
Ergo UKIP will win the EU elections in May 2014.
Until our class rejects capitalist so called ‘democracy’ which is a choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, nothing will change.

@sonofsantiago

IMO the concept of right and left is meaningless. At one point in time the “left” opposed “globalisation” which had at its core, free movement of labour and capital. Now the “left” supports the EU and free movement of labour, or immigration, and so is pro globalisation. Immigration is the outsourcing of the British working class, and the class knows this. So they will support those who oppose it. That’s why today’s Skynews poll shows 67% of Brits oppose more immigration.
Britain has no way of combatting this whilst in the EU because we do not control our borders or economy. The unelected EU Commission does. Again, the class knows this. Our trade unions, with the honourable exception of a few like RMT, go along with this.
Ergo UKIP will win the EU elections in May 2014.
Until our class rejects capitalist so called ‘democracy’ which is a choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, nothing will change.

arie65

Peter Cook

The UK has changed demographically and needs a diverse political landscape if our democracy is to survive.Space needs to be created for the BNP/UKIP/RESPECT/GREENS
these parties have more mavericks and fresh ideas otherwise the next general election the turnout will be below 49% then what, more broken promises?

Sun

SeanieRyan

The left is dead in Europe at this stage. Why would someone vote for the Socialists in France. A party that is the epitome of establishment politics. The days of parties on the left representing working class needs and the opinions of working class people are long gone.

The attitudes of many people on the left have done much to alienate their support base of which I used to be a very one.

Parties like the NF, UKIP and PVV are growing because people have see that their is no real difference between the Tories and Labour,the socialists and the UMP.

All the same circus but different sides of the tent. People want change will turn to those who are listening to them and engaging them, not lecturing or dismissing them.

SeanieRyan

Most of the left lives in its own echo chamber. Look at people like Martin Schultz,the EU parl. President. His understanding of the world is so isolated that he can never understand the working or middle class who are so far beneath him in pay and conditions and daily reality. Don’t even get me started on Hollande or Hannes Swoboda.

The modern left are a core of the establishment at this stage and the radical left is more interested in infighting rather than engagement.

The left was bought out and played its part as willing fools, willing release valve for dissent and willing rulers over the people.

SeanieRyan

The modern left is primarily not of the working class and pursues policies that damage the working class and the low paid. Left orientated economic policy was replaced with social change because it was easier to achieve.

Drake

Drake

Call us far right, facist, nazi, Christian nut’s, whatever, the people no longer care about your name tags and name calling. Fact is, we are here, we are growing, we are going to win. Count on it. We have the truth, the guts, the minds. Face it, those who wish to see the European people, where ever they are, dead and gone, you have picked a fight that you are going to lose, badly. HASTEN THE DAY LORD. 🙂

Drake

Now is the time to smash this nazi scum once and for all. If these facists think that we are going to stand by and let them do it again, they have picked a fight that they are going to lose, big time. Count on it ! You can hide behind lies as much as you want, we know what you really are, nazis! The only answer is worldwide left revolution. If you think you facist nazis can do it again, you have a big suprise coming. We, the good people, will never let racist, sexist trash come to power. NEVER AGAIN !!!!!!